Why sit and read through the same boring
explanations of
my shorthand movie reviewing terms. Follow the link and see exactly
what
I'm talking about in this new feature shamelessly ripped off from Roger
Ebert.
-B-
Beginning With The End
Opening a movie with a brief tease of the end of the
story.
This is not to say that this technique never works (The Usual
Suspects
being an example of the technique used correctly) but it usually
doesn't.
If your movie has a half minute scene with no context followed by a
graphic
saying "six weeks earlier", you probably could do without the half
minute
scene.
-E-
Everybody's Got Bills
To Pay
Actors who take jobs clearly beneath them. Sometimes
an
ill fated lead, more often than not as a second banana. Movies done as
favors
and pet projects are exempt.
-F-
Funny Guy/Unfunny Movie
The mistaken impression that if you cast a funny guy
as
your lead, he'll carry all the comedic weight and you'll have a funny
movie
even if you don't write any jokes. See most of the works of Martin
Lawrence
for examples.
-G-
Gotcha
The most hackneyed cliche of the horror genre. A
character
will be walking down a hall, think everything is fine, turn around and
Ah!,
there's someone behind him. Or, a character will be looking in a
medicine
cabinet, and Ah! there's someone in the mirror.
-H-
The Hangar
This is an apparent commentary on the weakness
of
the airline industry. Whenever a group of con men, toughs, race car
modifiers,
whatever needs a place to hide out, plot, work, whatrever, there is
always
an empty airplane hangar which can be taken over and completely
equipped
in the span of an afternoon.
-L-
Let's Compare Paychecks
If a character tells you how much money he makes, it
will
turn out that he's the bad guy and is screwing everybody over for the
money.
His evilness is inversely proportional to his salary.
-P-
Poetic License Run Amok
When, for the sake of (usually failed) comedy, the
characters
engage in activity so obviously fake that it distracts from the rest of
the
movie. Seen most often in comedies involving police work.
-S-
Second Generation Movie
Movies made by people who have seen all the good
movies
in a genre and decide that they can make their own. The result is a
step
behind and strangely failiar.
Sequel Dislaimer
Before 1999, I almost never went to the
movies. When it comes to sequels, odds are I've never seen the
original.
-T-
Thank You
Michael
Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer
The belief that the faster the car chases and the
bigger
the explosions, the better the movie.
-V-
Vomit Cam
The excessive use of hand held camers,
camera movement,
or frenetic editing for no reason other than to have hand held cameras,
camera
movement, or frenetic editing.
-W-
We Don't Need No
Steenkin'
Physics
Often paired with Thank You Michael Bay and
Jerry
Bruckheimer, this refers to the suspension of the laws of physics duing
car
chases or when characters run away from explosions.